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669 Restrictions On Legal Actions In Relation To Tax Sale

In This Volume

669 (1) After the end of the period allowed for redemption, no action may be brought to recover the property sold or to set aside its sale.

  • (2) No action may be brought
  • (a) against the registrar of land titles, the minister charged with the administration of the Land Title Act, the Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia or the collector in respect of the sale of the property or the registration of an indefeasible title to it, or
  • (b) against the municipality in respect of any loss or damage sustained by reason of the sale, except as provided in this section.
  • (3) A person who at the time of the tax sale was an owner of, a registered owner in fee simple of or an owner of a registered charge on the property must be indemnified by the municipality for any loss or damage sustained by the person on account of the sale of the property if the circumstances referred to in section 666(2)(a), (b) or (c) existed.
  • (4) As limits on subsection (3),
  • (a) no action may be brought to recover indemnity or compensation under this section after the end of one year from the time allowed by this Act for redemption of the real property, and
  • (b) there is no right to indemnity or compensation under subsection (3) if it is shown that the person claiming indemnity or compensation was aware at the time of tax sale that the property was offered for sale, or was aware during the period allowed for redemption that it had been sold.

RS1960‑255‑410; 1978‑25‑332; 1982‑60‑112, proclaimed effective August 1, 1983; 2004-66-151, effective January 20, 2005 (B.C. Reg. 16/2005); RSBC 2015-1-669, effective January 1, 2016 (B.C. Reg. 257/2015).

CROSS REFERENCES AND OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

See Di Castri, Registration of Title to Land, vol. 2, para. 720.

CASE LAW

In an action to recover land after the end of the redemption period, the court held that the legislative scheme in s. 276 of the Land Title Act and ss. 420 and 424 of the Local Government Act (now ss. 663 and 669) affirmed the principle that finality is desired in tax sales and that a plaintiff’s claim to an interest in the land was overcome by the statutory provisions (Sun Wave Forest Products Ltd. v. Prince Rupert (City), 2012 BCSC 1908).

The defendant township, found to have sold the plaintiff property owner’s land at a tax sale without notice to him, was ordered to pay to the plaintiff compensatory damages equivalent to the fair market value as at the date of trial, less the delinquent taxes. A correct interpretation of s. 669(3) did not entitle the plaintiff to be indemnified for his legal fees and costs, and he was entitled to Scale B costs within the Supreme Court Civil Rules (Morgan v. Spallumcheen (Township of), 2022 BCSC 752).